Swimming through a sea of statistics

The beginning of a school year is full of excitement, expectations and new routines. Teachers are not only eager to know about their students' personalities and interests, they must also determine students’ strengths and weaknesses with core skills.  One way DNH staff monitors these skills is by using the NWEA Measures of Academic Progress(MAP) test. Recently the instructional coaches worked with the fourth grade team to dive into student data.  We not only waded through MAP results, but also FAST and Iowa Assessment data.    
After much trial and error, a document was created consolidating all data in a format the teachers feel will be helpful making instructional decisions.  It’s kind of a color-coded nautical chart, guiding teachers through an overwhelming sea of numbers.  A portion of the reading data is shown.  

The instructional coaches are grateful the fourth grade teachers were willing to "jump into the deep-end" and troubleshoot a process to study this data.  The insights gathered that day will help make the process smoother for other teams, allowing them to dig deeper into their student data and better meet the needs of learners. 

​"The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other. Without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspectives."
- Robert John Meehan

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